Purpose: Scientific literacy plays an important role in catalyzing science learning in the 21st century. Unfortunately, previous evidence revealed that students' scientific literacy tends to be unsatisfactory. This study investigated the effect of ethnoscience-themed picture books embedded in context-based learning (EthCBL) on students' scientific…

During the academic year in the state of Georgia, EL students in public schools take the Georgia Milestones End-of-Grade and the ACCESS 2.0 assessments, which are in line with the state-mandated subject area standards in mathematics, science, language arts, and social studies, as well as English language proficiency standards (Georgia Department…

Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is an international comparative study that has been implemented by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) since 1995. This proposed study is aimed to identify the affective factors contributing to eighth graders' science achievement in TIMSS…

Conceptual knowledge is a crucial tool for students to understand scientific phenomena. Knowledge about the structure and function of mental concepts potentially helps science educators to foster the acquisition of this tool. Specifically, the coherence of students' mental concepts is an intensely discussed issue within the related conceptual…

At least 66 million people globally are experiencing forced displacement and had to flee their homes in order to escape war, persecution, and natural disasters. Countries that have accepted larger refugee populations must address the task of enabling their participation in society. Besides other aspects, numeracy skills are important for all…

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of journal writing, which is one of the "writing to learn" activities, on students' academic achievement, learning retention, and attitudes towards science in the elementary school fourth grade science course unit called "Illumination and Sound Technologies".…

Rising inequality in the United States has raised concerns about potentially widening gaps in educational achievement by socio-economic status (SES). Using assessments from LTT-NAEP, Main-NAEP, TIMSS, and PISA that are psychometrically linked over time, we trace trends in achievement for U.S. student cohorts born between 1954 and 2001. Achievement…

Specifications Grading is a system of course-long student assessment based on the division of learning objectives into clearly defined skill tests or assignments. Each skill is evaluated at a mastery level, with opportunities for students to learn from their mistakes and then be re-evaluated for skill tests, or resubmit assignments. Specifications…

Recent efforts to reform K-12 science curricula, embedded within the "NRC Framework for K-12 Science Education" and the "Next Generation Science Standards," have focused on unifying core disciplinary content with crosscutting concepts that span across science disciplines and scientific practices. With these reforms comes the…

The Mechanical Waves Conceptual Survey (MWCS), presented in 2009, is the most important test to date that has been designed to evaluate university students' understanding of four main topics: propagation, superposition, reflection, and standing waves. In a literature review, we detected a significant need for a study that uses this test as an…

Science educators in the United States are adapting to a new vision of how students learn science. Children are natural explorers and their observations and intuitions about the world around them are the foundation for science learning. Unfortunately, the way science has been taught in the United States has not always taken advantage of those…

The paper is based on the construction and evaluation of scientific creativity test devised for the senior secondary school students. It is an attempt that was made to evaluate validity, reliability and to determine the appropriate standards for the interpretation of the scores obtained from the scientific creativity test devised for science…

The Regulations of the Commissioner of Education provide that an elementary-level science test is to be administered in Grade 4 to serve as a basis for determining students' needs for academic intervention services in science. The New York State Grade 4 Elementary-Level Science Test consists of two required components: a Written Test and a…

Research about students' perceptions concerning the learning environment based on biology teachers' TPACK still limited. The purpose of this study was to obtain information about the impact of biology teachers' TPACK on students' perceptions concerning their learning environment. TPACK scores were obtained from instrument in the form of…

In this paper, the level of conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics among Afghan school and university students in Kabul, Afghanistan was investigated. This study employed a quantitative descriptive survey method where the Pashto version of the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) was given to a random sample of 216 students from two schools and…